1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organization system that is used by an anesthetist or other medical professional wherein the system has numerous compartments and other holding implements that are used by the profession during an operation or other procedure, the present invention keeping the various implements organized for easy access by the professional while maintaining stability in an unobtrusive fashion.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Many people believe that an anesthesiologist simply puts a person to sleep prior to an operation and thereafter allows the person to awaken following the procedure. If the job were that easy, then there would be no need for multiple years of residency and training after a doctor graduates from medical school. However, anesthesiologists are perioperative physicians who are tasked with a wide range of duties before, during, and after a procedure is performed on a patient, either in an operating room or other locale.
While the safe administration of anesthesia to a patient is central to an anesthesiologist's job, the job is much more complex than the untrained eye might see. Part of an anesthesiologist's duties include a preoperative medical evaluation of the patient prior to surgery, including an evaluation of the patient's medical history and current medical condition, the age of the patient, the procedure to be performed, any allergies of the patient, etc., consultation with the surgical team, creating and implementing a plan for the anesthesia tailored to the patient, airway management, intraoperative life support and provision of pain control, and proper post-operative management of the patient. The doctor (or other medical professional), must obtain the drugs to be used during the procedure prior to the procedure and must safe-keep the drugs (yes, theft does occur even in hospitals, with this requirement being per JCHAO mandates), must compound and dose the drugs, and must administer the drugs both prior to the commencement of the procedure, during the procedure itself, and after the procedure has ended. The anesthetist must be ready to administer additional or different drugs if the current drugs combination is not performing satisfactorily, or if the nature of the procedure suddenly changes, for example, a procedure performed under local anesthesia changes to one whether the patient must be quickly put asleep. During the procedure, the anesthetist is tasked with monitoring various signs of the patient, such as blood pressure, heart beat rate, oxygenation and carbon dioxide levels of the patient, etc., not only to be certain that the drugs being administered are performing satisfactorily, but also to give other doctors feedback which may be useful to these other doctors. Sometimes, the anesthetist needs to draw blood or other bodily fluids from the patient, either to help with the monitoring process, or for follow-up care subsequent to the procedure then being performed. Sometimes the anesthetist is required to perform other procedures around the medical building like intubations, placing IVs, arterial catheters and central line catheters.
These and other tasks make the day of an anesthetist, busy if not hectic. One thing that is evident, is the fact that the anesthetist requires different hardware in the operating room or other point of procedure location. Such items include the drugs to be used, syringes and vials including tape, alcohol, bandages, betadine swabs, IV and arterial catheters, laryngoscopes, endotracheal tubes, etc. Additionally, appropriate disposal receptacles tend to be located centrally, some distance away from the provider. Keeping these items organized and orderly tends to pose a challenge to the anesthetist. In addition to keeping the tools of the trade organized, the anesthetist must also know where the all the hardware for the case is located. While the operating room may be relatively large, the working space assigned to the anesthesiologist is relatively limited. The anesthetist must set up and be able to perform under all circumstances in the assigned space. In the event of an emergency, when seconds count, the anesthetist must be able to get the right tools to the right location without delay. While fumbling around for a pen in an office setting is innocent enough, in an operating room when the surgeon suddenly finds the need to put the patient to sleep to perform an unexpected cut, the anesthetist must be able to perform on the spot and without interfering with the other professionals involved in the procedure. This makes organization of the various tools of the anesthetist critical.
The current accepted methodology is to keep the needed items within the multitude of drawers within a centrally located cart and obtain each tool as needed therefrom. Many times one can find the provider fumbling through many drawers looking for exactly what that person needs, especially in an emergency situation. When the items are found, they can be placed in odd places, including the patient's chest, the cart behind the provider and elsewhere.
What is needed is a device that allows an anesthetist to be able to carry and organize the various tools that are needed or might be needed for a procedure, which gives the professional rapid and easy access to any tool that might be required at any given time. Such a device must be compact in design in order to allow the anesthetist to be able to use the device in a relatively compact work space, yet must be able to carry all of the tools that are needed by the anesthetist, all the while being able to carry the device from one work location to another. Such a device must be logically laid out so that the anesthetist can get whatever he or she needs in a moment's notice. Ideally, such a device should be of relatively simple design and construction.